


Forgive and Forget the Memory

by AdriftanOpenSky



Category: Naruto
Genre: Apologies, Blank Period, Comfort/Angst, F/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sasuke and Sakura when they were traveling around, Short One Shot, my way of trying to understand the pairing is by writing it, pregnant sakura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-08 04:09:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19863256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdriftanOpenSky/pseuds/AdriftanOpenSky
Summary: Sasuke and a pregnant Sakura are traveling around, and settle in a cave for the night to rest away from the storm. All is peaceful until lightning strikes and wakes Sakura up with the memory of a certain (few) unpleasant Chidori. Sasuke tries to comfort a confused Sakura as she is stuck in a delicate almost-trance. Apologies and self-reflections ensue.





	Forgive and Forget the Memory

The remains of the downpour softly dribble outside, tiny droplets rolling down gleaming leaves. At the entrance, beads of water peel off the ledges of rock and pool into puddles. Their ‘plop’s echo throughout the cave.

His right eye shifts away from the moonlit forest and down to the head on his lap. Her hair shines a silvery pink, glowing against the black cloth of his legs, and the skin of her face is rosy and glistening. In her sleep, Sakura’s eyebrows are smoothed into an expression of tranquility, and her hands rest protectively against her swollen stomach. 

A flash of lightning coats everything in brilliant white, and then thunder rolls heavy across the skies as emerald eyes jerk wide open.

A Rinnegan peers down at her, a shock of purple. 

In the blink of an eye Sakura scrambles up and away, breath puffing out in pants and vision suddenly glassy. 

Sasuke stares at her from the opposite wall. 

“I-I…” she gulps into the moist air with a parched throat.

He continues to stare.

“Please...don’t,” she whispers.

Slender, black brows furrow. Petite hands clutch at her left breast, and Sasuke realizes they shiver in time with the rapid beat of a heart below them.

His gaze trails back to her own, and her eyes remain wide in her blind terror.

Droplets drip into the tense silence, and moonlight bleeds into the darkness between them.

Sasuke lifts himself from the damp floor and stands tall. A few small steps forward and he looms before her. 

The rise and fall of her chest quickens its pace. 

With his right hand Sasuke makes to wipe away the droplet trickling down her neck. It shines soft in the silvery night. 

With his left hand, he makes to pull at the hands clasped tight over a now completely-still chest. But as he touches the skin of her throat with the right, it is only the stump of his left that moves uselessly, and Sakura’s jugular pulses erratically underneath the cold press of his fingers.

He stills at the pure panic in her eyes. 

Sasuke slowly smoothes away the wet trail down her neck only to find it sticking more stubbornly than expected to her skin. He then realizes that it was a tear that had made its path down her cheek and across her jaw, salty and warm, and not a cold, sweet drop of rain from the skies. He immediately follows it down, down past the protrusion of her collarbone, down to her motionless chest. 

A cold hand clasps her clammy ones in a tight grasp and pulls them down and away. 

She heaves and her breathe curls once more into the air before them.

He stares at her. 

She averts her gaze and slumps her head.

  
  


“I’m sorry.” Her voice trembles.

  
  


“Sakura.”

  
  


Hesitant and timid, she lifts her face towards his. An obsidian eye looks at her, uncharacteristically soft. His voice is smooth. 

  
  


“ _ I’m _ sorry.”

  
  


Her arms curl around her belly, and she smiles, small and soft. 

But as they sit back down, side by side, and gaze out at the forest under the starry night, emerald eyes glitter in the moonlight with the glimmer of an ancient, unforgettable sorrow. 

_ And I forgive you. I do. I have. Always. _

_ But… _

_ I cannot forget. _

She takes hold of his hand, and studies it.

_ Even if I tell my mind to do so… _

_ My body will always remember.  _

She caresses the palm in her grasp.

_ It’s outside my power to choose. But I swear it, if I had the choice I would forget it all for you. _

The puddles grow wider and shine brighter as the night carries on.

**Author's Note:**

> My attempt at Sasusaku. There are so many opportunities when it comes to writing this pairing, because there is so much to discuss and reflect upon when it comes to their dynamics and characters. Perhaps this one-shot is a beginning to a long 'study' of some sort.


End file.
